Summer Warmth
by The Drowned World
Summary: The third installment in my "Summer" series, a set of Harry/Oliver fluff stories set during an AU version of the summer before the golden trio's sixth year at Hogwarts. Harry and Oliver run into some problems; Hermione and Ginny are exasperated.


**A/N:** This is the unexpected third installment in what is turning into a series of oneshots I've written set during the summer before year six, starting with _Summer Sun_ and continuing with _Summer Flare_. It's an alternate, hugely fluffy universe where Oliver Wood and his family moved to Ottery St. Catchpole shortly after the summer began, and he and Harry started an unexpected romance with help from Hermione's brilliant deviousness. In case you haven't read up through _Order of the Phoenix_, there are mild spoilers for something that happens at the end of the year five novel.

I had originally intended _Summer Sun_ to be a oneshot fluff, which it was, but I liked it too much to leave it alone and wrote _Summer Flare_ as a Ron/Hermione (mostly fluff) fluff. Now, I'm in the mood to keep going with Harry and Oliver's side of the story. Whether or not I'll write in this 'verse again I'm not sure, but if I do and this thing gets a fourth story I'm going to surrender and make it a full-fledged chapter-by-chapter piece of fanfiction.

**Note:** You don't have to read either _Summer Sun_ or _Summer Flare_ to get this; it's entirely up to you. This is still a oneshot, even though it's set in an AU that I established with the other two. It stands on its own just fine.

**Warnings:** A) This is a _slash_ story, with the pairing being Harry Potter and Oliver Wood. If this offends you, go away; B) There is Ron/Hermione shipping going on in the background; C) This isn't exactly PWP but it _is_ a romantic little thing that doesn't take itself too seriously, so if you're looking for a more plot-intensive romance you won't find it here. This will be rated **PG** for kissing, hand-holding and footsie games, but I seriously doubt that it'll turn into adult-stuff.

Harry Potter

_Summer Warmth_

Harry Potter had never expected to fall in love with Oliver Wood. In fact, if anyone had told him that that would be precisely what would happen he would have laughed in their faces, but there it was. As he stretched back in the warmth of the summer sun, he could feel an unaccustomed smile stretch across his face. He hadn't smiled like this since before the start of fifth year, and it was a good feeling, like stretching a sore muscle that hadn't been used and needed to be smoothed out again.

Funny – he'd known that he was a wizard since he turned eleven years old, but this kind of magic was entirely new to him, and delighted him all the same.

Oliver was, at the moment, hanging upside down off of his broomstick, staring at Harry with quizzical eyes. The two were supposed to be practicing Quidditch (ever the Quidditch fanatic, Wood had been over the moon even more than Harry himself when he'd found out that Harry had been awarded Wood's old post of Quidditch Captain for Gryffindor, their school House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry). The summer days were getting longer, however, which meant that summer would soon be coming to a close, and Harry wished more than anything that there was a charm he could master to make time stand still. So he'd instead stretched out on the grass and let the sun tickle his face and tried to pretend that a letter from the school that he dearly loved didn't bother him as much as it did.

"Are you going to talk about it at all?" Oliver asked, his voice uncharacteristically serious beneath his usually sunny Scottish accent.

"Talk about what?" Harry asked reluctantly. "And, the fact that you can still form normal words while hanging upside down for that long is somewhat unfair."

"I'm a keeper," Oliver said cheerily, but there was a different inflection in his words than the Quidditch position and Harry didn't laugh the way he was supposed to. Oliver sighed and descended down to Earth, and it was still somewhat amazing that such a burly, muscular boy could touch down in the grass with no more disturbance than a feather. Oliver slowly lifted the glasses off of Harry's face and Harry blinked owlishly up at him.

"Oliver..." Harry sighed and sat up, right into Oliver's lips. Kissing Wood was a revelation, really; in all of his relationships, especially since he'd found out that he was the Chosen One, Harry was expected to be the strong one, the leader, and it was a treasure that he never took for granted how Wood's big hands cupped his face like he was made of porcelain, how his kisses began so gently, his lips massaging life into Harry like Prince Charming from a fairy tale.

"I don't want you to be sad," Oliver said after a moment, laying down on the grass next to him. Harry splaid next to him with his head on Oliver's strong chest, comforting himself by the strong, even thrum of Wood's heartbeat. It was a silly wish on Wood's part, an impossible wish, and in that moment Harry could feel that no matter the fact that Wood was four years his senior, he was older than Oliver in ways that Oliver would never understand or be able to.

"I don't want this summer to end," Harry responded, matching impossible wish with impossible wish.

"I'll still be here when you come back," Oliver said firmly. When Harry tried to protest, Oliver kissed him silent, and Harry gave himself over to being comforted for once. With the sun shining down on his back and Oliver's strong hands anchoring him to this impossible warmth radiating from Oliver's perpetual cheerfulness to himself, Harry could almost believe that everything was going to work out alright.

**888**

After Quidditch practice, Wood had been uncharacteristically silent, and Harry was worried. When he'd first began this...thing with Oliver, he had wanted more than anything to keep Oliver happy. Oliver was like his own portable sun, and Harry didn't want to darken that with his problems. But Wood also shouldered people's burdens, and he was trying to shoulder Harry's, and Harry's burden wasn't he kind that any person could carry, only those that were forced to it.

For a few days, it was like the summer's end was rushing faster, until Hermione finally got tired of it and demanded that the Weasleys host the Woods for dinner again. Mrs. Weasley, who loved everybody, was all for it and by Sunday Oliver and his father were sitting outside eating another feast. Hermione gave Harry a meaningful look when he went to sit by Ron, and Harry sucked it up to himself and stopped being a coward and sat across from Oliver. Oliver looked hurt, briefly, that Harry wasn't sitting next to him, and Harry sighed. He didn't know how to do this, but all he knew was that he wanted to erase that look from Oliver's face and never see it back again.

Ron was giving him a disbelieving look as he sat next to Hermione, and Harry philosophically spooned himself a helping of mashed potatoes. Ever since Ron had had a miniature explosion earlier this summer about Harry and Oliver, and Hermione had had a mysterious talk with him, he and Hermione had been completely inseparable. Ginny at least was thrilled, as she informed everyone the next day that Ron had been panting after Hermione's skirts for three years now and that she had been getting ready to hit him over the forehead with a copy of _Witch Weekly_ until he realized it if he hadn't kissed Hermione by summer's end. Ron hadn't found the situation as amusing as Fred and George, however.

They were right, though. Harry was trying to capture that ethereal feel of summer where he didn't have to face or confront his problems. His relationship with Oliver wasn't supposed to have problems in it; it was supposed to be the one magical thing in his life that he could have and not be complicated. But everything was complicated, and there were things in life that were worth fighting for. If Sirius could see him now, he would be telling Harry to fight for it. Harry smiled, really smiled, and it was the first time this summer that thinking about Sirius didn't leave a ripping hole in his heart.

Oliver jumped and blushed furiously when Harry's foot lightly stroked along the top of Oliver's. He shot Harry a look and Harry blinked innocently and did it again. Oliver shivered. Liking that reaction, Harry nudged the sole of Oliver's foot with his toe, and Oliver returned the favor. Looking over, Hermione was giggling at something that Hermione said as, under the table, Ron's hand was holding Hermione's fast. The magical candlelight that Mrs. Weasley had conjured was glowing down on them like moonlight, and as Harry fought the urge to laugh as Oliver meanly started using his toes to tickle Harry's feet, he felt the smile returning to his face.

"Well, as Dad and Mr. Wood are discussing the Ministry of Magic and likely won't be paying attention to any of us any time soon – isn't that right, daddy?" Ginny spoke up from the foot of the table.

"Yes, please pass the salt, dear," said Mr. Weasley absently as he continued to argue a point with a very tipsy Mr. Wood.

"Exactly," Ginny said sagely. "I think that it's time that we all accepted the fact that Dean Thomas is going to be coming to visit next weekend and I'll be taking him on a date to Diagon Alley when we go back to school shopping."

"I...you...what?" Ron spluttered.

"Oh, shut up, you – you haven't stopped snogging Hermione since last week, and don't you give me that glare, your hands are not above the table," Ginny said sweetly. "And what with Harry and Oliver playing footsie under the table like two year old's, I'm entirely capable of being the only sexually mature person at this table and taking advantage of my youth."

"That went completely above my head, but right on," said Oliver, managing a tricky maneuver with his left foot that had Harry blushing and toppling from his stool.

"Men," Hermione said. When Ron protested, she shoved a strawberry in his mouth. "Oh, _look_, the Woods are going to have to spend the night again! The joy! I suppose Harry and Oliver will have to share the living room again," she commented to Mrs. Weasley.

"Oh, yes, very much, dear," the older woman said, determinedly _not_ listening to Fleur Delacour as she went on rapturously about her upcoming nuptials to Bill, the eldest Weasley. Ginny and Hermione went off to plan wardrobes as Fred and George snickered into their treacle. Ron crunched down helplessly on his strawberry and turned to ask Harry what he thought, but Harry and Oliver were already walking away from the table.

"How do I always get stuck helping you two with the cleanup?" Ron asked the twins.

"Us? Helping? Ha!" the twins whispered, and, taking their mother's distraction at value, disapparated.

"One day, they will all work for me," Ron commented as he helped himself to another portion of deviled eggs.

"That's the spirit, dear," Mrs. Weasley said as she rolled her eyes heavenward.

**888**

"I dare say Hermione has an investment in us," Oliver said lightly as he took Harry's hand in his own. They were walking along the edge of the small pond on the edge of the Weasley's property.

"I think we're an experiment to her. She's scary like that," Harry pointed out, squeezing Oliver's hand back.

"Are you ready to talk about it?" Oliver asked softly. Harry sighed, but he didn't pull away. One of the things that he loved about the Weasley's property was the softness of the grass. He almost never wore shoes outside so that his feet could soak up the residual warmth of the sun in the grass.

"Oliver, bad things are coming," Harry began. He turned to face Wood, and Oliver's warm, brown eyes were gleaming with emotion as he held Harry tight in the moonlight. "I don't like to think about them because when I'm with you I feel safe, and I don't want that feeling to end, but at the same time I think that this summer is something of a cruel joke because...I don't want to lose you the way I lose everything else."

"You haven't lost Ron or Hermione yet," Wood pointed out. "And you haven't lost the Weasleys, and you won't lose me."

"You can't promise that," Harry murmured, thinking of Sirius.

"I can, because I love you, and it's going to work out," Oliver said firmly. It was the first time that he'd said it out loud, and Harry was startled at the warm feeling washing through his entire being, like he was buzzing with the cheering charms they'd learned last year, or he was shooting through the sky on his Firebolt, all at once. If anyone had told a ten year old Harry Potter that he was destined to be a great wizard, he would have laughed at them, too. Sometimes, magic happens, and it's unexpected, and it's beautiful, and even Muggles get it, too. _Maybe this is what mum understood so well, when you can't give something up_.

"I love you too," Harry whispered, and he kissed him, oh, he kissed him beneath the moonlight and he knew that he was flying.

That night, they slept together in the living room, the windows open to tempt in the warm summer breezes, and Harry slept soundly, Oliver's arms wrapped around him, and he put off the worry till the morning. For now, there was one warm, magical summer night where he loved and was loved, and everything was alright. Maybe it would work out, maybe it wouldn't. Either way, he pressed his lips into Oliver's skin and felt Oliver's sleeping arms tighten around him automatically. Either way, he was still smiling as he fell asleep.

_**Finis**_.

**A/N:** Okay, I just _wrote_ that and even I'm saying _aww_. I'm sorry; I very rarely write solid fluff, and it always gives me the warm fuzzies when I do, and giving that it's colder than various expletives where I live right now, that's always a good thing. I'm hoping that y'all enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I have this feeling that one day I'll come back to this 'verse again, because it's just too damn cute to ignore. Sigh. In any case, now that I have the romantic out of me for a little bit, it's time to go back to one of my other fics and start torturing those characters again. Bwa ha ha!

**By the way, for those of you not familiar with me, I usually write with music. For the "Summer" series, I've assembled a soft, slow collection of love songs that I listen to as I write, so here it is for anyone who's interested:**

**Harry Potter—The Summer Series**

Oxygen – Colbie Caillat

Ordinary Day – Vanessa Carlton

BareNaked – Jennifer Love Hewitt

The Little Things – Colbie Caillat

Just Like Heaven – The Watson Twins

Memory Box – Alessi's Ark

Bubbly – Colbie Caillat

One Sweet Love – Sara Barilles

Come Away with Me – Norah Jones

Magic (Piano Version) – Colbie Caillat

Ain't Love Somethin' – Sam & Ruby

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy – Sarah McLachlan

Me and Bobby McGee – Jennifer Love Hewitt (or Janis Joplin, if you prefer the original better)


End file.
